In past years to honor Father Emil Kapaun, the heroic Korean War chaplain known as the “shepherd in combat boots,” Father Paul Lee, the pastor of the Shrine of St. Jude Parish in Rockville, Maryland, had emulated that late priest’s example by celebrating an outdoor Mass for students at St. Jude Regional Catholic School, with the altar set up on the hood of a Jeep, just as the chaplain had done for troops on the front lines in Korea.
But rain pelting the parish grounds on Sept. 22, 2021 scuttled that plan, and instead St. Jude’s students, teachers, parishioners and visiting members of the military gathered in the shrine to honor the late U.S. Army chaplain whose cause for sainthood is underway, and who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously in a 2013 White House ceremony. The Mass opened with four members of an honor guard from St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., marching quietly toward the sanctuary.
“This is supposed to be a Jeep Mass, but the weather is not cooperating,” said Father Lee, who noted that Father Kapaun celebrated Masses for soldiers rain or shine, in snow and harsh weather.
Addressing the students, who wore face masks and sat in social distances from one another in accord with COVID-19 safety measures, St. Jude’s pastor said Father Kapaun’s “sacrifice and selfless example have inspired generations of people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.”
For Father Lee, a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, the Mass had a special poignancy, because his own family had escaped Communist North Korea as refugees. Over the past decade, Father Lee has celebrated a Mass for St. Jude’s students honoring Father Kapaun every two or three years. At a 2013 Mass, the makeshift altar was set up on the hood of an olive-colored Jeep, and Father Lee wore vestments from that era and boots.
The 2021 Mass at the Shrine of St. Jude took place exactly one week before the Sept. 29 Mass of Christian Burial for Father Kapaun in Kansas, which Father Lee told the students he would be attending as a concelebrating priest.
Father Kapaun’s journey home
Father Kapaun, who grew up on a farm in Kansas, died on May 23, 1951 in a North Korean prisoner of war camp. After the 1953 armistice, his remains were interred among unknown Korean War soldiers at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. In March 2021, the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that the remains of Father Kapaun had been identified through a DNA match.
On Sept. 23, a special Mass honoring Father Kapaun was celebrated at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. The next day, Father Kapaun’s remains in a flag-draped casket were escorted by members of his family and military officials on a flight back to his home state of Kansas.
A press release from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA noted that “from Wichita’s airport, a military escort brought Father Kapaun’s remains to St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church in Pilsen, Kansas, where early in life the priest-hero was baptized, served as an altar boy, and later celebrated his first Mass of thanksgiving and became pastor following his 1940 ordination...”
On Sept. 27, the chaplain’s remains were brought to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita for a vespers service for priests of that diocese. A funeral vigil for Father Kapaun was held on Sept. 28 at Hartman Arena in Wichita, then the Mass for Christian Burial was held there on Sept. 29. Afterward, his remains were brought in a horse-drawn military caisson to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where he was interred in a tomb.
Remembering ‘a great hero of faith’
Opening his homily at the Sept. 22 Mass for St. Jude’s students, Father Lee repeated some of the words spoken by President Obama at the 2013 Medal of Honor ceremony for Father Kapaun, noting he was an American soldier “who didn’t fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live.”
The Rockville priest noted that Father Kapaun “was a hardworking farmer’s son, humble and very strong physically and spiritually.”
From the fields of Kansas, the U.S. Army chaplain served in the Korean War, and Father Lee noted the toll of that conflict in which more than 50,000 Americans and over 200,000 Koreans were killed.
Father Lee noted how after Chinese forces entered the war on Nov. 1, 1950, Father Kapaun was captured the next day.
“Although he had many opportunities to escape, he chose to remain to take care of those who were captured, especially for those who were wounded,” the priest told the students.
Amid the cruel conditions in the prisoner of war camp, Father Kapaun cared for wounded soldiers and other prisoners, scrounging up food for them. “More importantly, he provided comfort and encouragement to those hungry and dejected prisoners of war,” said Father Lee, noting that the chaplain encouraged the prisoners not only to forgive their enemies, but to love them. “If we fail to forgive, we are rejecting our own faith,” Father Kapaun told them.
Father Lee pointed out how when the chaplain was taken away just before dying at the camp, he spoke of heaven to his fellow prisoners, saying, “I am going where I’ve always wanted to go. And when I get up there, I’ll say a prayer for all of you.” Father Kapaun then blessed his guards. Father Lee noted how by the time the chaplain died, he had Protestants, Jews and atheists praying the rosary together with Catholic prisoners, defying the camp guards and sustaining hope in the men.
Father Kapaun was named as a Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1993, an initial step in his canonization cause.
In his homily, Father Lee said he is sure that the chaplain will be declared a saint some day.
“Today let us remember what he stood for,” Father Lee said, encouraging students to have the courage to stand up for their beliefs and to forgive those who hurt them.
“When we see our friends, especially the little guys, being bullied or treated unjustly, we need to stand up for them,” the priest said.
Father Lee also encouraged people to “pray for true peace and eradication of violence here and everywhere else.” He also asked them to pray for the people of North Korea, who 70 years after war broke out there, are still suffering under Communist rule. “Pray for them that they get the freedom they deserve,” he said. “No human being should live under those cruel conditions.”
Concluding his homily, Father Lee said, “May we grow in our love for the Lord and one another.”
St. Jude’s students read prayer intentions during the Mass. After Communion, Father Lee recited a special prayer for the intercession of Father Kapaun, and he asked people who are serving or who have served in the armed forces to stand, and the congregation applauded them.
Noting that he would be in Wichita, Kansas, the next week for Father Kapaun’s vigil and Funeral Mass, Father Lee said, “I’ll join many others in giving thanks to God for this great hero of faith.”
Also at the Mass, Jeanne Donatelli was introduced and was applauded as the new principal for St. Jude Regional Catholic School, where she has served as a teacher beginning in 2000 and later as the assistant principal there. In 2014 while teaching at St. Jude’s, Donatelli received the Golden Apple Award as one of the outstanding Catholic school teachers in the Archdiocese of Washington. Her daughter Elizabeth graduated from the school in 2007 and her son Jimmy graduated from there in 2009.
Saying she was honored and humbled to be the school’s next principal, Donatelli said, “St. Jude’s is my home and my parish and my school.”
Priest chaplain’s example
After the Mass, St. Jude’s principal said students can emulate Father Kapaun’s example by being selfless and taking care of others before themselves, and also by seeing Christ in others and making sure that they see Christ in them.
Michelle Ardillo, who teaches upper school religion at St. Jude School, said Father Kapaun’s courageous faith and sacrifice reminded her of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who died of starvation 10 years earlier in 1941 at the Auschwitz concentration camp after offering to take the place of a father condemned to die following a prisoner’s escape.
“I think it’s important to have modern-day saints we can look up to and be inspired by. In religion class, I talk about having good moral decision making and having courage,” she said.
St. Jude’s eighth grader Lina Garcia said, “I think it’s important to remember his (Father Kapaun’s) life, because of how he took care of others, even when he himself was in danger. People can learn from his example by helping others when they need it the most. Simply asking someone how they’re doing can be enough sometimes.”
(For more information on Father Kapaun and his cause for canonization, visit the website frkapaun.org.)
